For a year, blue-chip corporations in the West have been setting up shop on Second Life, the online, 3-D alternate reality that is redefining Internet communication.
Now, Japanese businesses are quickly getting in on the act.
In Second Life, created by San Francisco-based Web company Linden Lab in 2003, computer users who have downloaded an interactive "client" program are able to create android-like characters called "avatars" and remotely guide their activities within Second Life.